Zhongzhi on his Rockstar Neko with Rye & Pint Brewery

Zhongzhi Goh (ZZ) is a NAFA graduate who has been in the industry for 7 years, after completing his Bachelor in Communication Design over at SIM-RMIT. His recent work for Rye & Pint Brewery has even gotten various media attention and definitely ours.

The project is essentially a branding project with a play on the Maneki-Neko cat, for a local craft beer, Rye & Pint Brewery. We spoke to him more about his process and how this branding project started.

Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

Hey. I’m ZZ, a graphic designer & an illustrator who does designs ranging from prints to videos and runs Surplus Design on the weekends.

Describe your illustration style?

Street culture influenced.

We’d really like to talk about your Rye & Pint stint. What was the Client’s brief?

The client’s brief was pretty much “I would like you to design our beer labels for us and would like to use a fortune cat as our mascot with a fusion of oriental and western vibes to it, be free and create whatever that you think is awesome!”

It’s really a brand that you’ve designed, more than just illustrations. Did it evolve into that or was that the whole idea?

At first, it was just illustrations for their beer labels but right after the first 3 labels was out in the market. The “Rockstar Neko” that I created had became sort of their branding and people started recognising the cat more than their actual branding.

What was your process in doing the illustrations and the font?

I, myself, basically love fortune cats and at the start I was just staring at those that I have on my shelf and after that, it's all about researching online on styles and colours. After creating about 50% of the whole look, I then start looking for font options that will complete the artwork.

What are the difficulties in this project?

There isn’t much difficulty in this project because my client gave full creative freedom to me. But what was important was more of getting the work process right; such that it benefits both the client and myself for future works. It's something every designer will face when they get a new client.

Do you have any advice for those working on illustrations for their projects?

Just do it and go all the way with a positive mind and be FREE with your ideas.

Lastly, a takeaway message for readers?

Never stop looking for inspirations. They are everywhere, even places you think it wouldn’t have.